A Little Guide to Gardening
Jo Elworthy and Eleanor Taylor
Eden Project
For this, the third ‘Little Guide to’ we have a new artist in Eleanor Taylor.
The chatty narrative opens with an introductory invitation ‘Imagine a special piece of earth where you can sow, plant and grow anything you like.‘ I can envisage some youngsters reading this and wanting to plant enormous exotic jungly gardens and others thinking of a patch of wild flowers, both of which are possible for the narration continues ‘A garden can be very big. A garden can be very small. A garden can be up high. A garden can be just for you. Or somewhere to share … You can make your garden here, there or anywhere. You don’t even need a flowerpot!’ Then, after a brief introduction to plants in general, Jo Elworthy takes readers through the seasons from spring to winter, talking about the changes through the year , listing jobs to do and suggesting activities. These are taken up in more detail later in the book when Eleanor Taylor’s delicate, winsome illustrations animate the step-by-step instructions and the wealth of other horticultural information …

There’s much more besides though, including pages on some of the garden visitors – butterflies,

birds and soil-dwelling creatures – all beautifully illustrated and each one a mini work of art in itself. So much to inspire young, potential gardeners: who wouldn’t want to make a den like this one?

Or this one among the peas and beans?

There are some delicious historical snippets such as ‘ROSEMARY Rosmarinus officinalis: Victorians put rosemary in the handles of their walking sticks. They used to sniff them thinking they kept diseases away.’

And Dill – It was called ‘meeting house seed’ by the settlers in North America as children chewed it in sermons to stop them from feeling hungry. Goodness knows how long the sermons were then!

Readers are also provided with blank pages at the back of the book to keep a seasonal record (I’d be hesitant to write in such a lovely book but that’s down to lucky owners to decide for themselves.) And there’s a tick list for recording plants grown.
The previous Little Guides – Little Guide to Trees and The Little Guide to Wild Flowers were illustrated by Charlotte Voake and this one maintains the high standard she set therein; indeed I notice the font used here is the one devised by Charlotte.
This is definitely one for the family bookshelf.

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